Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?

First, lets ask Chat: is affiliate marketing worth it? Their response:

"The effectiveness and worth of affiliate marketing depend on various factors, including your goals, resources, and approach. Here are some considerations to help you determine if affiliate marketing is worth it for you:

Goals and Expectations
[Types Of] Revenue Generation
Brand Exposure
Niche and Audience
Quality of Products/Services
Content Quality
Traffic and Audience Size
Affiliate Programs and Commissions
Time and Effort: Success in affiliate marketing often requires time and effort. It's not a guaranteed quick win, so be prepared to invest time in building relationships and optimizing your strategies.
Compliance and Ethics
Testing and Optimization
Legal Considerations

In conclusion, affiliate marketing can be worth it for many individuals and businesses, but success depends on various factors. It's essential to approach it strategically, with a focus on providing value to your audience and building genuine connections".

This is probably not what you were thinking right? But the following stats is created with the above points in mind. Check out our resources for affiliate marketing and selling here.

Is affiliate marketing worth it? Part 2.

The InfluencerMarketingHub released an affiliate marketing report. Is Affiliate marketing worth it is one of the main questions that was asked.

Here are the main points:

“Today, the affiliate marketing world has grown to include brand ambassadors, affiliate networks and publishers". In 2013 affiliate marketing spending was $2.9 billion in the US. In 2023 it hit $14.3 billion.
As of 2023 there are 9600 organised companies that are affiliate marketing related. This also is worldwide. To us that doesn't sound a lot
For Rakuten 80% of advertisers use affiliate marketing. "Marketers use affiliate programs at all stages of the customer journey: 83 percent targeted consumers during the discovery and awareness phase, 79 percent during conversion or purchase and 79 to create ongoing customer engagement".
Depending on the source and research Am Navigator found Fashion to be the top category of selling affiliate products, followed by Sports & Outdoors, Health/Wellness & Beauty, Travel, and Home & Garden. Whereas Hosting Tribunal reported that 41.04% of affiliate marketers prefer promoting computers and electronics products, compared to 39.84% preferring clothing and apparel, 29.88% online services, 29.48% accessories, 27.89% beauty, and 26.69% health and wellness.
Amazon was the top leader of affiliate promoting its products (at 900,000) but when they adjusted the payout structure (reducing commissions) this bolstered the other networks. The next top ones and growing: ShareASale (700,000+), Awin (225,000+), Rakuten (150,000+), and ClickBank (100,000+). But again, when you look at the numbers, there are not that many affiliates in the big scheme of things. 900,000 affiliates selling Amazon products? That is worldwide. Amazon has half the sales online and has a huge amount of credibility and trust. I would have though it would have been in the millions. It is also worthy to note that there are 210,000 Amazon Associate websites. It is worthy to note that "Peerfly is one of the largest affiliate marketing networks in the world with over 250k publisher accounts, 75k active in 165 countries".
14% of Lifetstyle affiliates congregate more on Insta- even though the lifestlye niche has low payouts. Insta? Its where lifestyle topics are generally discussed.
Affiliate commissions average: Arts- 12%, Health & Beauty 10-30%, 20% Business, 13% Fashion, 13-20% Tech, 15-30% eLearning, 35-40% Finance, 10-20% Fitness, 20-70% SaaS.
People working from home? Search results for affiliate marketing increased. Also the home and garden niche increased in revenue
And the payments? "We discovered that 3.78% of our survey respondents made more than $150,000 annual affiliate income, 7.94% $100,000 -$150,000, 5.15% $50,000 - $100,000, 16.21% $10,000 - $50,000, and 57.55% below $10,000". The majority make less than $10k/yr but it is also recognised that they can increase to the other bands.
Blogging has lost its shine, but it isn't dead. 27.8% use blogs as affiliate channels. the other channels to see if affiliate marketing is worth it? 18.7% review sites, 14.8% coupon sites, 7.2% newsletters, 6.5% editorial sites.
48.9% of companies pay a flat rate, 42.4% pay a percentage of the sale
Are the affiliate networks worth it? Well, they used to be. 27% of marketers use them. But how about the 73% that don't? Well, it is to do with the affiliates themselves. The networks did little to incentivise the affiliate and at the end of the day, only a few large affiliates created the bulk of the sales. So now, 73% of marketers are actually being lured away to SaaS packages from the actual brands themselves and bypassing the networks.

So, is affiliate marketing worth it?

Like with most questions, it depends. It mainly depends upon those points that Chat overviewed at the start.

You might be thinking that all the researched points are quite a lot. A lot of information. It is, but if you are in that world, you would see that all the above is quite welknown. Why would you go on Intasgram if you are getting a low commission for lifestyle products? The answer is much simpler. because it is a channel that you enjoy and have curated into something that you know and manage. Once you "know" a channel you can then use that channel to promote other products.

Jumping from one platform to another is not a wise way to go about affiliate marketing and makes the journey much more painful (and costly). Find a channel you like- whether that be blogging, Youtube, Facebook and then utilise it. If you don't like making videos then initially, don't do it. Regardless of Youtube being high in search- or you have seen people making money on video. They only did so because they enjoy it.

Enjoy the channel.

Best affiliate niches to sell online?

What is an affiliate marketer.

For more info on eProduct selling check out the Jasonera blog here.